In 1939, newly created British intelligence agency MI6 recruits Cambridge mathematics alumnus Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to crack Nazi codes, including Enigma -- which cryptanalysts had thought unbreakable. Turing's team, including Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), analyze Enigma messages while he builds a machine to decipher them. Turing and team finally succeed and become heroes, but in 1952, the quiet genius encounters disgrace when authorities reveal he is gay and send him to prison.

The death and funeral of their father brings three sisters to the home of their mother, Violet (Meryl Streep), an acid-tongued, pill-popping cancer patient. Daughters Barbara (Julia Roberts), Karen (Juliette Lewis) and Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) -- along with their significant others and various other kin -- take the full brunt of their dysfunctional matriarch's venom, for Violet tells every one of them exactly what she thinks of them. Based on the play by Tracy Letts.